Turkiye’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has instructed his foreign minister to meet with Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad, amid Ankara’s efforts to restore ties with Damascus.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday at the NATO summit in the United States’ capital Washington DC, Erdogan announced his instruction to Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan to meet with the Syrian president with the aim to begin the process of restoring diplomatic ties with the Syrian regime, thirteen years after cutting relations over Syrian forces’ brutal suppression of peaceful protests.
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The Turkish president also stated that he expects solidarity from NATO allies and member states in the fight against Kurdish militant groups spread throughout northern Syria and northern Iraq, some of whom are still supported by US forces.
“It is not possible for us to accept the crooked relationship that some of our allies have established especially with the PYD/YPG, the extension of the terrorist organisation PKK in Syria”, Erdogan stressed.
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